KENYA: GERMAN FILM CREW SPEAK ABOUT EXPERIENCES FILMING THEIR NEW MOVIE "NOWHERE IN AFRICA" WITH THE POKOT PEOPLE

Record ID: 391249

  • Title: KENYA: GERMAN FILM CREW SPEAK ABOUT EXPERIENCES FILMING THEIR NEW MOVIE "NOWHERE IN AFRICA" WITH THE POKOT PEOPLE
  • Date: 27th March 2001
  • Summary: MUKUTANI (27th MARCH 2001) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF A CROWD OF POKOT VILLAGERS RUNNING, SCREAMING, BANGING ON POTS (0.06) RUNNING POKOTS IN BACKGROUND, TWO SOUNDMEN IN FOREGROUND (0.11) BACKGROUND AS ABOVE, CAMERA-CREW IN FOREGROUND (0.16) MV: POKOT EXTRAS HAVING A CIGARETTE BREAK (0.21) SLV: OLD POKOT MAN (0.26) VARIOUS OF THE FILM CREW (2 SHOTS) (0.35) CLOSE: JULIANE
  • Embargoed: 11th April 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MUKUTANI
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAE1I4QQUGWFJH2GN7XA0FLKY9C
  • Story Text: The crew of a German motion-picture with a budget of 14 million D-Mark has been shooting on location in Kenya from the 31st of January. As the shoot in Kenya comes to a close, members of the crew look back on their experience.
    These Pokot villagers are not running for their lives.
    They're running for cash.
    Their village Mukutani is the setting for a major German film that has been shot almost entirely in Kenya.
    A day as an extra earns each Pokot villager 600 Kenya Shillings (8 US$), a lot of money in rural northern Kenya. So its no surprise that every villager wanted to be in the film, even the oldest man in the village the only extra in the running-scene who chose to stand instead.
    For the visiting German crew, the willing cooperation and boundless enthusiasm of so many people was a pleasant surprise. The Pokot people in this village, they were so well, you wouldnt get that in Germany, Juliane Köhler, the leading actress in the film told Reuters.
    If you look for 100 extras in Germany, they are often already so used to it, theyve done it so many times. And the people here, they had never done it before, and they were incredibly natural and unbelievably disciplined. It really did fascinate me, how they did that scene again and again, how they ran and made the noise.
    But not all surprises were as pleasant as the Kenyan extras.
    Clouds heavy with rain, so uncharacteristic for this time of year, seemed to follow the crew around wherever they went. In Mukutani, this created enormous problems the set turned into a mud-bath, and for a while, it was cut off from the world.
    I mean that was we were very scared, even I was, remembers Juliane Köhler. Im not really a fretful person and I have travelled a lot, but in Mukutani, even I was afraid that I would never get out of there again, to be honest. That was pretty exciting.
    They did get out. And really they wouldnt be German if they hadnt done it on time. They stayed on schedule throughout in spite of the weather, and the break-in at the Outspan hotel in Nyeri a few weeks earlier in which valuable equipment was lost.
    I think that you can make films in Kenya pretty well, says producer Peter Herrmann, sweeping aside the problems that disrupted shooting.
    And the images, the locations, are better than in other parts of Africa in my opinion. And for that reason I think that our decision was the right one where the pictures are concerned for a start, because we found great locations and had the chance to produce excellent pictures. But what is even more important is that we are making this film with the right people.
    And from what we could see, the people he refers to were just as pleased about the cooperation as Peter Herrmann was. Theyre good people, Musa, a Pokot boy who worked on the set, says about the German crew. I really like them, and I like making cinema. Its good that theyre here.
    Main Kenyan actor Sidede Onyulo meanwhile, had occasional difficulties on the set, which he attributes to the language barrier. But his impression of the German colleagues is fundamentally positive. The German psyche, for want of a better term, he says, out of Europe or the western world, is nearest to the African psyche. For me.
    The film is an adaptation of Stefanie Zweigs 1995 best-seller Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa). It tells the story of the Jewish Redlich family, who flee to Kenya from Germany in 1937.
    In the ten years they spend in Kenya, Walter and Yettel Redlichs marriage comes close to collapse, as they struggle in different ways to adapt to life in Kenya. Walter finds it hard to abandon Germany and his German identity, and his resentment increases when the British take him prisoner during the war.
    Yettel, meanwhile, is used to a life rather more luxurious than the one she is forced to lead in Africa, and it takes her years to adapt to the change. Only little Regina falls in love with Africa almost at first sight, picking up the language quickly and making Kenya her home.
    Its a true story, and both Peter Herrmann and director Caroline Link want to the pictures that theyre shooting in Kenya to reflect the realness of the story. And their feeling so far is that they have succeeded in their mission of authenticity.
    Peoples general impression is that they say This film has an extraordinary look, it seems so authentic, says Peter Herrmann. And that is exactly what we intended. We didnt want to produce an international glossy Hollywood-look here in Africa, we wanted to stay close to the story, and achieve with visual means that one has a feeling of authenticity, that one feels close to it. And I think that we have managed that.
    Well, until now it looks that way.
    Juliane Köhler sees it much the same way. It should be a normal film, about normal people, who are just there and who can be dirty, and who somehow have normal problems she told Reuters. And not it shouldnt be so over the top. And I hope that that comes across, that would make me happy. And I think that that is the difference with respect to other films about Africa.
    And Juliane Köhler had none of the problems that her film-character Yettel had on coming to Kenya. Down-to-earth and easy-going, she took problems in her stride and simply enjoyed her work.
    For Sidede Onyulo, this is the biggest part in a motion-picture of his career. The German crew were impressed with his acting and for Sidede, this film might herald bigger and better things.
    My studied profession is law, he says, smiling. Im an artist at heart. Ill put it this way - I think Im at a funny point where it looks like I am perhaps able to reach out for what Ive always dreamed of. And it looks achievable.
    And for the others, the immediate outcome of this film are new friends from a culture so far away to their own, and fond memories of getting to know Africa as you only can when you meet its people properly. Almost all of the German crew have plans to return.
    Definitely, says Juliane Köhler. I hope for the premiere. I really hope that we will have a premiere here. Because our Kenyan colleagues, it would be a catastrophe if they couldnt see the film. And besides, I would so like to see them all again. And for that I would love to come back.
    The film is due for release in Germany at the end of this year. If it does come to Kenya, a premiere in Nairobi will certainly be an experience not to be missed for the people for Mukutani. Most of them have never seen a tarmac road, let alone the inside of a cinema.
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